Success for the Hamilton baseball team has turned into a commonplace event. Success for Morrisville-Eaton has proven more elusive. Yet both were happy at the end of Thursday’s season openers. The Emerald Knights got into some brief trouble against Oriskany, but used one big inning to get out of it and work toward a 7-4 victory over the Indians. That was nice — but what was even nicer was M-E knocking off Richfield Springs 12-3, ending what had been a four-year drought without a victory. Under the steady guidance of new coach Chris Doroshenko, the Warriors took charge with four runs in the first inning. Four more runs would follow in the top of the fourth, making the score 8-1, and M-E would never get caught. Kameron Brown pitched and got the win. His battery mate, Matt Pelton, got three of M-E’s nine hits and earned two RBIs, while Ben Thomas had two hits and drove in two runs. Will Thomas added two hits and an RBI.
Hamilton is the defending Section III Class D champions, coming off a magical 2009 campaign that didn’t end until it reached the state semifinals. Though many stars graduated from that squad, a lot remains for head coach Joe LePage — including the battery of pitching ace Kinnon Nolan-Finkel and catcher Jack Sullivan. They had a rough introduction, though, as a poor pitch by Nolan-Finkel allowed Oriskany’s Mike Bunal to belt the ball over the fence for a season-opening home run. Nolan-Finkel settled down, though, and kept it 1-0 until the bottom of the second, when the Emerald Knights’ bats went to work. By the time that frame was done, Hamilton had scored six times. A collison between two Oriskany outfielders led to a pair of those runs, and Sullivan’s double brought in two more. Oriskany would pull back within 6-3, and kept having chances the rest of the way. But it stranded 11 runners as Nolan-Finkel consantly worked out of trouble and earned the win.